Styler's 'Up Against It' IVF Comedy Premieres At TIFF — SkimNews
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- "Up Against It" had its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival as part of the Gala Presentations slate.
- Trudie Styler directs the comedy-drama about divorcing couple Alvaro and Saffron, who are told by their daughter's doctor that conceiving a genetically matching child is her only hope against returning leukemia.
- Antonio Banderas and Eva Birthisle star as the warring exes, with the review noting their combustible dynamic is conveyed through body language rather than exposition.
- Eden Hamilton plays daughter Rose, around whom the film draws an explicit parallel between "a broken body" and "a broken home."
- Forest Whitaker plays the doctor presenting the radical solution; Úrsula Corberó and Arinzé Kene co-star as Saffron's and Alvaro's respective new partners, both blindsided by the conception plan.
- The screenplay is by Chloe King and Camille Griffin, with producers Styler, Celine Rattray and Piers Tempest; sales are handled by CAA (domestic) and Beta Cinema (international), with a 2-hour-2-minute runtime.
- Richard E. Grant appears in what the reviewer calls a role so brief it raises the question of why he accepted it.
Why it matters: The film positions a high-concept ethical dilemma — engineering an IVF "savior sibling" to cure a child — inside a family-reconciliation comedy, with the festival slot and dual CAA/Beta Cinema sales pairing indicating both awards-season ambitions and a push for international distribution ahead of any acquisition deal.
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